NORTH BENNINGTON — Shaftsbury resident and artist Joe Bishop is happy to announce an exhibition of his drawings titled “Places, Spaces and Favorite Faces.”
The opening reception will be held Feb. 4 from 3 to 5 p.m. at The Left Bank Maurice Kahn Gallery, 5 Bank St, North Bennington.
The exhibit will run through Feb. 29 and open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. or by appointment.
The artist was born in Bennington in 1960, and attended Brandon Training School at a young age. He then enrolled in Special Education classes at Catamount School and then at Mount Anthony Union High School, graduating in 1982. Joe has worked at P & C Foods and Hannaford bagging groceries, Big Boys Toys, Shaftsbury Country Store and NSK. He currently lives in Shaftsbury with Kevin Bushes and his family and can be seen observing and plotting his next drawing on the bench at McCullough Library, Earl’s Gas Station or at Willy’s Variety Store.
For over 20 years, Joe has worked alongside artist/teacher Matthew Perry, executive director at Vermont Arts Exchange (VAE). He has also worked with various teaching artists at VAE over the years. “I am so happy to present this body of work, recent and not so recent, pure and honest,” Perry said.
“’Places, Spaces and Favorite Faces’ is an appropriate title for this show,” Perry said. “Joe is no stranger to Bennington, which he observes on a daily basis. He records the ‘Places’ from memory, many which are from Bennington and North Bennington’s Main Street, the markets, churches, libraries, parades and the hustle and bustle of traffic.
“And there are the more personal ‘Spaces,’ the drawings of his family, men’s group, Bingo night and the annual Camp Thorpe summer adventures. Over the past year, Joe works every week on portraits (‘Favorite Faces’), of his country music stars.”
In 2017, at Joe’s first solo exhibit at Brown Cow Café, VAE teaching artist Matthew Marks, who had worked with Joe for two years, echoed Perry’s thoughts on Joe’s process, saying, “All of this flows out of Joe like water. It flows effortlessly and joyfully. Just like Joe.”
When asked to think and respond to questions about why he makes art or how it feels to make art, his response is simply, ”It makes me happy.”
The work on exhibition is for sale.